Wood veneer vest



June 12, 1956 s. K. FESTE WOOD VENEER VEST Filed Feb. 14, 1955 United States Patent Office 2,749,552 Patented June 12., 1956 WOOD VENEER VEST Stephen K. Feste, Buffalo, Minn.

Application February 14, 1955, Serial No. 488,082

` 6 claims. (cl. 2 92) This invention relates to a vest to be worn by humans and more specifically relates to a vest to be primarily used by a feverish person in retaining body heat for breaking his fever.

Often times when a person is feverish he will move around substantially while sleeping and will unknowingly throw his bed covers back or otherwise become uncovered. This will occur primarily because he becomes too warm and has perspired profusely. When this occurs, it is likely that he will become chilled to make his condition even worse, even though he has warm bedclothes on. Because such bedclothes will absorb a substantial amount of perspiration it will evaporate and tend to cool both these clothes and his body. Air will circulate over and through his bedclothes and will cool them to the extent that he cannot possibly keep warm.

An object of my invention is to provide a vest of simple and inexpensive construction and operation which is constructed of a highly insulative material which will restrict passage of air therethrough and which will not lose its shape and insulating qualities when wet or thereafter, when subsequently dried.

Another object of my invention is the provision of a vest for a feverish person which will hold in substantially all of the persons body heat and which will permit only a very limited flow of air between his body and the vest to prevent sudden cooling of his body when he becomes uncovered or when outer clothes are suddenly removed, because any perspiration absorbed by the vest will only be evaporated very slowly and because the amount of perspiration absorbed by the vest is kept at a minimum.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a fabric covered wood veneer vest which is su'iciently ilexible and so shaped to make the wearing thereof comfortable and which vest may be rolled up into small compass for storage.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation view of my invention shown worn by a man;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of my invention shown in such form as it will be secured to a persons body;

Fig. 3 is a view of my invention shown in extended or laid out relation; and

Fig. 4 is a detail section view taken substantially at 4 4 of Fig. 3.

The vest which is indicated in general by numeral comprises an elongated sheet or strip 11 of wood veneer, which, in the preferred form is formed from a closed grain wood such as balsam, birch, gumwood or basswood. The grain of the wood extends generally transversely of the elongated sheet of veneer as is shown in the cut-away portion of Fig. 3. The wood sheet 11 is of relatively small thickness and should be approximately %,2 or less in thickness. The veneer sheet will thereby be sufficiently flexible so that it may encircle in close fitting relation, the upper trunk portion or chest of a persons body and may be rolled into small compass for storage. The veneer sheet will also be exible in a transverse direction to permit relative shifting of the longitudinally extending edges thereof so as to permit the sheet to conform, to the extent desired, to the irregular shape of a persons body.

The veneei sheet 11 has a pair of enlarged and arcuately formed recesses 12 formed in the upper edge 11a thereof and spaced from each other a suiiicient distance to receive, when worn by a person, his arms therethrough and to partially encircle his arms adjacent the arm pits. The end portions of the veneer sheet and the intermediate portion thereof adjacent the upper edge 11a thereof are thereby disposed with respect to the bottom portions of the recesses 12 in upwardly extending relation so as to cover portions of the chest and back of the wearer of the vest above his arm pits. Another pair of enlarged and arcuately shaped recesses 13 are formed in spaced relation with each other, in the lower edge 11b of the veneer sheet 11. Recesses 13 are of substantially shallower depth than the arm-receiving recesses 12 and are spaced adjacent to and below said arm-receiving recesses 12 for receiving the hips of such a person therein when the Vest is sworn so as to preclude the lower edge 11b thereof from engaging or irritating the portion of the persons body adjacent his hips.

A fabric covering 14 extends the entire length of the veneer sheet on both surfaces thereof and is securely attached to the sheet by any suitable means so that when the wood veneer sheet is rolled up, the fabric covering will not pull away from the veneer sheet 11. In the preferred form, the fabric covering 14 is made from cotton and is washable and will be secured to the veneer sheet by means of a flexible and waterproof gum glue. I have found that the glue must be applied to both the fabric and to the wood veneer sheet before the fabric is applied to the sheet so that a secure bonding will result between the veneer sheet and the fabric cover.

InV addition to the fabric covering an elongated ilexible and narrow strip 15 of covering sheet material is securely afxed along the edges of the veneer sheet 11 and along the edges dening the recesses 12 and 13. Of course suitable means are provided for securing the opposite ends of the veneer sheet together, and in the form shown, such means comprise tie cords or tapes 16 and 17 which are secured to the fabric covering of the vest. It should be noted that ties 16 are secured to the vest inwardly of the outer end portion thereof so as to permit overlapping of the opposite end portions of the vest when the same is secured to a persons body and also to permit some adjustment to persons of various sizes.

When the vest is worn, it will normally be applied over the persons underwear or T-shirt, as shown in Fig. l and the opposite end portions of the vest will be secured together in such a manner so as to cause the vest to fit snugly around the persons chest. In normal use of the vest, outer clothing should also be worn, whether it be bed clothing or other outer garments such as a sweater and jacket. Although the wood veneer sheet 11 is ilexible, it is not sufficiently flexible to permit the vest to follow all of the irregular contours of a persons body and therefore there will be, between the vest and the persons body, a plurality of small but substantially dead air spaces. An extremely limited amount of air is permitted between the vest and the persons body because the fabric covering of the vest does permit slight movement of air therethrough. There will, however, be substantially no air permitted to flow between the vest and the persons body, at least not enough to rapidly evaporate perspiration. The vest will retain substantially all of the normal body heat which is highly important when a person is likely to be chilled. If the person wearing the vest perspires, only a limited amount of that perspiration will be absorbed by the vest and substantially no air will pass through the veneer vest to cause evaporation and cooling of the persons body.

If a feverish person wearing the vest should become uncovered while he is sleeping there will be substantially no evaporation of perspiration from the persons body beneath the vest, but there -will be sufficient ow of air and evaporation so as to cause a gradual drying of his body after becoming excessively warm and after a subsequent exposure to air. Even though the Wood veneer sheet has absorbed a limited quantity of perspiration there will be only a Very slow evaporation of the perspiration therefrom because air cannot rapidly circulate through the pores of the wood. Upon absorbing any quantity of perspiration the wood veneer will not lose its shape or its relative stiffness so as to cause deformation of the vest.

It has also been my experience that if a person who has become chilled and has started to catch cold, as evidenecd by his frequent coughing, will put on the vest comprising my invention, along with clothing covering the vest, his chills will disappear and his cough will be broken, often times within a very short period, such as two hours. This is because the vest retains all of the persons body heat so that he is effectively warmed from within. The Wood in the vest is an extremely good insulator to prevent any cold air from contacting his body and to prevent the heat from within escaping.

It will be seen that .i have provided a highly insulative vest which is simple and inexpensive and which will rettain substantially all of a persons natural body heat and will prevent sudden and rapid cooling of the person due to the evaporation of his perspiration.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, detail, arrangement and proportion of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which consists in the matter described herein and sct forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A body heat-retaining vest for use by a feverish person comprising an elongated strip of closed grain wood veneer having the grain thereof extending transversely of the strip and being adapted to encircle in close fitting relation the body of a person to cover his chest, a fabric covering extending the length of said strip and being secured to one surface thereof to be placed adjacent the persons body and means for securing the opposite ends of the strip together for holding the same on such a persons body.

2. The structure recited in claim 1 and including an elongated narrow and flexible strip covering secured over the longitudinally extending edges of said Veneer strip and enclosing the ends of the grain thereof to prevent the same from chang the persons skin underneath his arms when the vest is secured around his chest.

3. The structure recited in claim 2 wherein a fabric covering is secured to both surfaces of said veneer strip to thereby restrict chang of the persons body and to protect other clothing worn adjacent thereto.

4. A body heat-retaining vest for use by a feverish person comprising an elongated flexible strip of extremely thin closed grain Wood veneer having substantial width and having the grain thereof extending across the width, said strip being adapted to extend around the chest and back of such a person, and said strip having an upper edge with a pair of spaced and arcuate recesses therein to partially encircle the persons arms and to permit the upper edge of the vest, when worn, to be disposed upwardly of the arm pits of such a person for covering his upper chest and back, a fabric covering extending the length of said strip and being secured to one surface thereof, and means for releasably securing the opposite ends of the strip together.

5. The structure recited in claim 4 wherein said strip also has a lower edge With a pair of spaced and arcuate hip-receiving recesses therein spaced below said first mentioned recesses to prevent said vest from engaging the persons hips.

6. The structure recited in claim 5 wherein said first mentioned recesses are substantially deeper than said last mentioned hip-receiving recesses.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,306,518 Briones June 10, 1919 1,930,212 Purcell Oct. 10, 1933 1,997,344 Randall et al Apr. 9, 1935 2,482,295 Schlafman Sept. 20, 1949 

